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The Program poster

The Program

year 1993decade 90sdirector David S. Wardgenre Sportsgenre Drama

112 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

James Caan Sam Winters
Halle Berry Autumn Haley
Omar Epps Darnell Jefferson
Craig Sheffer Joe Kane
Kristy Swanson Camille Shafer
Abraham Benrubi Bud-Lite Kaminski
Duane Davis Alvin Mack
Andrew Bryniarski Steve Lattimer
Leon Pridgen Ray Griffen
Jon Pennell Bobby Collins

The Program | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonsguest Ryen Russillohost Kyle Brandt
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Most Rewatchable Scene

First practice into Latimer's weight-room scene; night-before-the-game speech; Darnell's lost football into Latimer's place at the table; first Mississippi State game; second loss without Kane; second half of the final game

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:29Read transcript
  • The first practice includes Darnell's first run and fumble and the coach's question "are you hurt or are you injured?", which the speaker says he has used on his daughter.
  • Whether the hurt-versus-injured line originated with Parcells is debated; it was probably heard before the movie.
  • Welcome to the Jungle kicks in for the pit drill, then the exhausted locker room gives way to Latimer pressing 465 while coaches say gaining 35 pounds over a summer is not hard; the stretch is called an unassailable, almost perfect five minutes.
  • Latimer's clean and jerk, throwing 315 down and kicking it while seemingly mad at the weight, is incredible; headbutting cars came from a real South Carolina player in a 1988 Sports Illustrated article that made the writer want the character. — Ryen Russillo
  • Latimer's first dive-bar scene shows Joe ordering two tequila shots for himself but takes too long to register Latimer's added 35 pounds; he was long mistaken for Sting the wrestler.
  • Latimer's steroid-era physique, like the Ultimate Warrior's, does not happen now in 2020 and makes the dialogue hard to follow.
  • Small details ring true, such as players lying on the locker-room floor with pads as pillows after the Guns N' Roses practice, then Latimer doing about 24 overhead reps of 315 and kicking the weights, which players copied.
  • The night-before-the-big-game speech ("We're the lucky ones") gives goosebumps; the speaker says he loves being in college stadium tunnels and gets chills for something he does not get to do; it was on the list of rewatchable scenes.
  • Darnell losing his football in class leads to Latimer's "place at the table" moment, which should be a constant meme; carrying the football around was copied by high school coaches, though a typed lineup taped to glass is preposterous.
  • The first Mississippi State game has a fumble, Latimer's helmet rip on a sack (compared with Kyle Turley and Aaron Brooks), and Alvin Mack's "you're the guy who shot my mother" heckling.
  • Alvin Mack's actor moved like a real football player and made the heckles feel original, a delicate thing to pull off.
  • The second loss without Kane, where Mack is hurt and Latimer is bowled over, is famous but painful to watch; why Mack's injury ends his career is questioned, with his visibly turned leg as the answer.
  • The entire second half of the final game is lumped together: the coach's mini pep talk, Ray finally throwing a good block, Latimer's snot bubbles, Darnell's punt return that Omar Epps seemingly performed, and the big catch; the fans not charging the field is the biggest quandary.
  • The fans not rushing the field is explained as a fatigued fan base, tired of a non-undefeated team about to go to a bowl. — Kyle Brandt
  • The pick is the practice sequence into the workout rather than the game, though Welcome to the Jungle is an 80s song and the scene should have used Pantera or Helmet. — Kyle Brandt
  • Asked for a pick, the reply mentions the Iowa fourth-and-goal involving Latimer, which stings every time, and says the last 15 minutes of the film are really liked and not on TV enough.

What’s Aged the Best?

Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski); Darnell-Ray feud; Kane Is Able bumper sticker; 80,000-fans chemistry-experiment line; bow-tie academic; Darnell's dating theory; jock adrenaline factor; Latimer's injection scene; Chris Berman

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:17Read transcript
  • Latimer's actor says not a day goes by without someone yelling "place at the table"; he is unrecognizable as a neo-Nazi in Higher Learning and later played Leatherface, but this was his best role.
  • Latimer belongs on a Mount Rushmore of football-movie characters and is a 1990s ogre in the Donald Gibb mold.
  • Why he never became a lead in action movies is a great question: he can act, as in the scene telling Alvin not everybody has his ability, and he has the look.
  • It is a tough lane (Jeff Speakman's The Perfect Weapon is cited); a theory holds that distractingly striking people struggle to carry vehicles, like a Peter Parker versus Spider-Man distinction.
  • He could have been Dalton's younger brother in Road House; his credits include Necessary Roughness, Street Fighter, Higher Learning, Any Given Sunday, Rollerball and the Texas Chainsaw remake.
  • The Darnell versus Ray feud is distinct, with Ray modeled on the Beverly Hills Cop banana-in-the-tailpipe type and the pair likened to Carlton versus the Fresh Prince; everyone roots for Darnell though he is kind of a dick.
  • Halle Berry is called terrible in the film for breaking up with Ray at a party and following Darnell, with a joke about her Monster's Ball Oscar speech.
  • The "Kane Is Able" bumper sticker is a great psych gag.
  • The spitting into each other's mouths was computer-generated after the fact according to both actors in the oral histories, a disappointment; don't spit in friends' mouths during COVID.
  • The line asking when 80,000 people last showed up to watch a kid do a chemistry experiment captures why football matters at colleges, and the bow-tie academic is a required stock character.
  • Darnell's theory for dating Halle Berry's character, going where white people go like skating and bowling, is called cutting edge.
  • The jock, adrenaline factor holds up: in 1993 the Pantera-loving jocks had Latimer as their guy, and rewatching felt like being back in the high school weight room.
  • Latimer injecting himself in the backside is rough on nicer TVs; the speaker says he has never used, and nobody he knows went straight to curls after injecting, especially with dated dumbbells. — Ryen Russillo
  • An unanswerable Berman question: was Tim Weyman's name written so Berman could say he could "go all the Wayman"; Berman's nickname riffs, such as Jeff Conine the Barbarian, suggest he made it up on the spot.
  • A recent Berman story: a joke nickname "Jeremy double chin" made on a podcast four days earlier was used by Berman on Monday Night Football 18 hours later; Berman has aged both the best and the worst.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Latimer's sexual assault scene; James Caan's performance; opening-game rainstorm; Joe Kane's age; cut road-lying scene; Kristy Swanson's tennis jorts; Ray the tailback's casting; Joe Kane's body double; no college overtime; Chris Berman's shtick; Ray Griffen's party sweater; Darnell licking his hands; quickly dropped assault charges; missed 1993 music

In the discussion (21)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:56Read transcript
  • Latimer's sexual assault scene was rougher and more terrifying than remembered, deplorable for a liked character, yet realistic for late-80s and early-90s campuses.
  • A 2020 film would handle it differently; it recalled the Gandolfini and Alabama Worley scene.
  • The scene is accurate and terrifying, and the small cast heightens how scary it is.
  • The scene is important because it shows Latimer as the worst character, which makes him conflicting and great; a comparison is drawn to a Vision Quest scene, and films have become more careful in the last 15 years.
  • James Kahn is not great here, like a coach who had a mild stroke; the "keep that index finger on the ball" line and the halftime speech lose the speaker.
  • Caan's best scenes are kicking a player off the team and the academic board hearing where he sells his soul to football.
  • A research claim that Popovich adopted James Kahn's coaching personality is admitted to be made up, and another participant flags the habit of throwing in fake information.
  • No NBA arena has ever hyped a crowd with the James Kahn scene.
  • The opening-game rainstorm looks like a monsoon.
  • A prediction game on the next item is won by the guess that Joe Kane is 32 years old; the deleted scene was next on the list.
  • The actor was actually 33, with a receding hairline, and Halle Berry at 27 with hair extensions seems like a teacher rather than a junior.
  • Craig Sheffer is the biggest flaw: not big enough to be a quarterback, never a big star, and too old, like an assistant coach.
  • Joe Kane is only a junior; Tim Weyman looks mid-40s; Halle Berry was making Boomerang at the same time.
  • The deleted scene of Joe lying in the road as cars swerve was cut after two young men were reportedly killed imitating it; it is missing from the VHS, later airings and Amazon but is on YouTube.
  • Sheffer's quote that he refused to do the scene until his agents were called is met with skepticism.
  • The cut leaves a hole: pre-internet it was unobtainable, and without it Joe jumps from party quarterback to borderline suicidal, like cutting Maverick's MIG encounter.
  • Cutting it while keeping the assault scene and the train-tracks stunt is inconsistent; the Cliffhanger comparison argues imitation risk does not justify it.
  • Further items: Christy Swanson playing tennis in jorts, Ray the tailback needing a better actor, Joe Kane's obvious heavier body double, the lack of college overtime, and Chris Berman doing the same shtick 27 years later, though that is countered as having come back around to respect.
  • Ray Griffin's party sweater (but not his khakis) has aged badly, as has Darnell licking his hands before the last kickoff; Newman gloves are fondly recalled.
  • The assault being resolved in seconds because the victim's booster father drops charges is not any real dad's reaction.
  • The film missed several chances to feel musically like 1993.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Offensive lineman later on ER; Joe Kane's father; urine-swap guy

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:29:26Read transcript
  • One of the offensive linemen later became the big medical-assistant character on ER.
  • Joe Kane's father, Elmo the chef from Vision Quest, outshines the room in bit parts, including the Christmas beer-can decorations scene, with talent near Duvall-level actors.
  • The urine-swap guy is added as a That Guy; the actor played one of Kiefer Sutherland's Klan brothers in A Time to Kill.

Apex Mountain

Omar Epps; Halle Berry's hair extensions; Craig Sheffer; Craig Sheffer's tall tales; Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski); steroids

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:39:42Read transcript
  • Omar Epps is at Apex: coming off Juice and before Higher Learning, he was one of the great sports-movie actors, before things faltered after ER.
  • Halle Berry's hair extensions are Apex only because she never did it again.
  • Craig Sheffer is a yes, and this is also the Apex of his tall tales, including a reported Parcells letter about backing up the Patriots' quarterback; one participant says he read it and it was true, though it amounted to Parcells saying he would love to have him around.
  • Kristy Swanson's peak is probably Buffy the Vampire Slayer instead.
  • The guy who played Latimer is absolutely at Apex.
  • The film may be the Apex Mountain for steroids, before the McMahon trial and baseball's reckoning; it is called wildly irresponsible steroid porn, and the case is agreed with.
  • Asked whether Princeton had a urine guy, the speaker jokes he was named Kevin and charged $100. — Kyle Brandt
  • A final Apex question is whether this is when people realized Michigan sucks, with its image turning from Big Chill favor to loathsome; Weyman's draft stock is also debated.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

Mack family door knocker; Latimer's neck roll; Latimer's urine-sample kit

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:50:34Read transcript
  • The Mack family door knocker is the first pick.
  • Asked what the Mack home would rent for on Airbnb, the speaker jokes the framing is not up to code. — Ryen Russillo
  • Anything from Latimer, maybe his ankh necklace but probably his neck roll, which launched a neck-roll craze.
  • Latimer's urine-sample replacement kit, or a used sample kept in a wine fridge, would be a great conversation piece.

Who Won the Movie?

Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski)

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:52:54Read transcript
  • Asked who won the movie, the immediate answer is Michigan, then "Mm. Ladimir" follows, possibly the same speaker revising the answer. — Ryen Russillo
  • Latimer won because he is the first thing people think of from the movie, like walking out of Rocky IV wanting to be Drago.
  • Iowa football, which took out Mack and Latimer in one night, is said to have a case.
  • Latimer won as well, along with everyone who later emulated him; there has not been a character like him in a football movie since.
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Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski)
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Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski)